MDye | Spring 2013

INTENSIVE WRITING SEMINAR: SCIENCE COMMUNICATION

1.15
Topic Getting Started
Project Creating a Social Media Presence with Wordpress & Twitter
Resources On the Origin of Science Writers
Advice from the Times on Writing Well
Stanford Online Course: Writing for the Sciences

1.22
Topic Selecting Content to Engage an Audience
Project Curating Content
Readings Neuromodulation
Kickstart my Heart
by Molly Young in n+1
Why Big Pharma is Causing the Adderall Shortage
by Moe Tkacik in The Fix
Ritalin in the Water
by Jonah Lehrer at Wired
Recommen Real, fake, both can cure depression
ded by Steve Silberman at Wired

1.29
Topic Researching a Subject
Project Drawing from Primary and Secondary Sources
Readings Taste Perception
Chateau Sucker
by Benjamin Wallace in New York Magazine
Wine descriptors tell us more about a bottle's price than its
flavor
by Coco Crumme in Slate
Does All Wine Taste the Same?
by Jonah Lehrer in the New Yorker
Blog The Language of Food
 MDye | Spring 2013

2.5
Topic Choosing an Angle
Project Personal Op-Ed
Readings Mental Illness
The Americanization of Mental Illness
by Ethan Watters in New York Times Magazine
Ill-Treated: The Continuing History of Psychiatric Abuses
by Brian Doherty in Reason
The Search for a Genetic Killer and Psychosis Keeps Up With
the Times
by Vaughn Bell in Mind Hacks
Recommen Call Me Crazy
ded in The Spectator
The Epidemic of Mental Illness
by Marcia Angell in The New York Review of Books
The Subjective Nature of Psychiatric Diagnosis
by Michael Brooks in The New Statesman
Blog Neuron Culture

2.12
Topic Translating Science
Project From Press Release to Popular Science
Readings Face Recognition
Face Blind
by Joshua Davis in Wired
A Memory for Faces: Extreme Version
by Roni Caryn Rabin in The New York Times
Seeing the Person Behind the Face
by Carl Zimmer in Discover

2.19
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Topic The Power of Analogy

Project Long Form Narrative: Building Block I
Readings Memory
Secrets of a Mind Gamer
by Joshua Foer in The New York Times
The Quest to Forget
by Robin Marantz Henig in New York Times Magazine
Does Faking Amnesia Permanently Distort Your Memory?
by Dave Munger in Cognitive Daily
Recommen Creating False Memories
ded by Elizabeth Loftus in Scientific American

2.26
Topic Crafting a Narrative Arc
Project Short Form Post
Readings Drug Use and Abuse
Drinking Games
by Malcolm Gladwell in the New Yorker
Dr. Ecstasy
by Drake Bennett in New York Times Magazine
This is my Brain on Chantix
by Derek De Koff in New York Magazine

3.5
Topic Le Bon Mot
Project Long Form Narrative: Building Block II
Readings Human Variation
The Science of Success
by David Dobbs in The Atlantic
Denial Makes the World Go Round
by Benedict Carey in The New York Times
In Praise of Misfits
in The Economist

3.12
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Topic Spring Break

Project [ No Meeting ]
Readings Humorous Readings
The ultimate guide to writing better than you normally do
by Colin Nissan in McSweeneys
The only thing that can stop this asteroid is your liberal arts
degree
by Mike Lacher in McSweeneys
Back from yet another globetrotting adventure, Indiana Jones
checks his mail and discovers his bid for tenure has been
denied
by Andy Bryan in McSweeneys

3.19
Topic The Art of Revision
Project Preparations for Workshop
Readings Language & Thought
Utopian for Beginners
by Joshua Foer in the New Yorker
Does Your Language Shape How You Think?
by Guy Deutscher in The New York Times
The Many Emotions for Which English Has No Words
by Megan Garber in The Atlantic
Recommen Difficult languages: Tongue twisters
ded in The Economist
The Dan Brown Code
by Geoff Pullum in Language Log
Blog Language Log

3.26
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Topic Workshop
Project Long Form Narrative: Building Block III
Readings Storytelling
This Is Your Life (and How You Tell It)
by Benedict Carey in The New York Times
A New Focus on the Post in Post-Traumatic Stress
by David Dobbs in The New York Times
Can Science Explain Why We Tell Stories?
by Adam Gopnik in the New Yorker
Recommen Everything is Fiction
ded by Keith Ridgway in the New Yorker

Blog On Fiction

4.2
Topic Developing Your Voice
Project Short Form Post
Readings Smorgasboard
Why are evolutionary biologists bringing back extinct deadly
viruses?
by Michael Specter in the New Yorker
Could a brain parasite found in cats help soccer teams win at
the World Cup?
by Patrick House in Slate
Girls are good at math when given the chance
by Robert Sapolsky in San Francisco Chronicle
Recommen The Long Tail
ded by Chris Anderson in Wired

4.9
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Topic Growing a Community of Followers

Project Short Form Post
Readings Amnesia
The Abyss
by Oliver Sacks in the New Yorker
Deconstructing the Missing Weeks of a Teacher's Life
by Rebecca Flint in The New York Times
Sex, brain cells, and memory loss
by Mo Costandi in Neurophilosophy
Recommen Amensia and the Self that Remains When Memory is Lost
ded by Daniel Levitin in The Atlantic

4.16
Topic Pitching a Story
Project Short Form Post
Readings Autism
An Epidemic of Fear
by Amy Wallace in Wired
An Immune Disorder at the Root of Autism
by Moises Velasquez-Manoff in The New York Times
Autism, immunity, inflammation, and the New York Times
by Emily Willingham
Recommen The Autism Rights Movement
ded by Andrew Solomon in New York Magazine
Are You On It?
by Benjamin Wallace in New York Magazine
Fish, Antidepressants, Autism and a Problematic Research
Premise
by Dorothy Bishop in PLoS Blogs

4.23
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Topic Open Science

Project Long Form Narrative: Polished Version
Readings Getting It Right when the Mainstream Media Gets It
Wrong
They're, Like, Way Ahead of the Linguistic Currrrve
by Douglas Quenqua in The New York Times
Vocal Fry and valley girls: Why old men find young women's
voices so annoying
by Amanda Hess in Slate
Vocal fry: "creeping in" or "still here"?
by Mark Liberman on Language Log

4.30
Topic When Science Journalism Oversteps its Reach
Project Short Form Post
Readings Sensationalist Reporting
Your brain on pseudoscience: The rise of popular neurobollocks
by Steven Poole in The New Statesman
The Naked and the TED
by Evgeny Morozov in The New Republic
The Pursuit of Sensational Science
in Prof Zeki's Musings
Recommen Caught Getting Creative
ded by Amy Wallace in Los Angeles Magazine
Cargo Cult Science
by Richard Feynman in his classic Caltech Commencement
Speech